The Rain Maiden by Jill M Philips

Author:Jill M Philips [Philips, Jill M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tudor
Published: 1987-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

FOR THE FIRST TIME in more than twelve years, Eleanor of Aquitaine was coming home to France.

Henry had summoned her to Normandy and she had no illusions about his reason. He had kept her cruelly imprisoned for all these years, separated her from her sons, humiliated her with his mistresses. He wouldn’t have granted her this sudden benison unless it had some profit to himself.

At Bayeux, when Eleanor arrived there from her frigid crossing, Henry met her and explained his purpose. He wanted her to take back the Aquitaine from Richard, and reassert her rights as duchess there. It would make the barons easier to deal with, he pointed out, because they resented Richard and his constant involvement in other wars.

Eleanor was not fooled. She knew Henry’s intentions. By forcing her to take back Richard’s territories, her husband meant to curb their son’s growing power. John’s ridiculous attempts at seizing Richard’s domains had resulted in ignominious failure, so now Henry had decided to extort the territory by legal means. What a ruthless hypocrite he was, and how she loathed him!

At the taole they sat across from one another, separated by many years of bitterness. Henry put his terms to her and she listened, unmoved by the protestations of sincerity. In the end Eleanor agreed to what he wanted, because there was very little else that she could do. Everything she had or hoped to have depended on his favor. Her imprisonment at Salisbury was not pleasant, but Henry could make her circumstances far worse if she defied him. So finally she signed the paper that he rudely thrust at her, but what she signed and what she promised in her heart were two different things.

Richard arrived in Bayeux two days later and graciously accepted Henry’s edict. Grim-faced and silent he stood before his parents and their assembled witnesses, and put his hand to the document which released the Aquitaine to Eleanor. It helped him to know the spirit in which she had agreed to this. He knew she would never sell him out, not for all the threats that Henry could make. She would hold the Aquitaine, but she would hold it for him, and when it became possible for her to do so, she would return it. Nothing could ever make him doubt her.

But still it was shameful to stand before all these people and play at giving up his rights, merely to satisfy Henry’s greed and stubbornness. Richard held himself erect and kept his chin high while the ceremony lasted. Later, when he was all alone, he drank too much and cried himself to sleep.

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